]]>Ento Food – How insects are slowly making it onto our plateshttps://www.danielanthes.com/en/entofood/
Fri, 09 Aug 2019 10:19:19 +0000http://www.danielanthes.com/?p=7354Almost a third of the world’s population eats insects. In the Western culture, however, the sight of insects still leads to emotional reactions somewhere between disgust and restrained curiosity. But...

]]>Almost a third of the world’s population eats insects. In the Western culture, however, the sight of insects still leads to emotional reactions somewhere between disgust and restrained curiosity. But due to the megatrends of sustainability and health, we are now finding more and more entrepreneurs, caterers and consumers who are opening up to beetles, crickets and worms.

Photo by Liam-Macleod on Unsplash

Still taboo in Europe, quite normal in the rest of the world

80 percent of the world’s countries have insects on their plates. According to the Food & Agriculture Organization (FAO) of the United Nations, these are more than 140 countries with a total population of around two billion people who regularly eat insects. Crickets, locusts and worms are a culinary constant, especially in Asia, Africa and South America (and especially in China, Thailand and Mexico). But in our western culture we still look at insects with a large portion of skepticism to disgust. So far the social mainstream prefers to limit itself to chicken, pork and beef.

But not only since this week we know that our meat consumption is still way too high, with negative implications for both the environment and our health. The issue of sustainable nutrition is becoming increasingly urgent as the world population grows and climate change progresses. Just this week in Geneva, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change published a new special report that says global warming is progressing faster than expected – with with grave consequences for agriculture. Rising temperatures, changing precipitation and more frequent weather extremes are already threatening global food security today.

“Agriculture, forestry and other forms of land use are responsible for 23 percent of global greenhouse gas emissions”

Researchers see meat consumption as a key factor in curbing man-made climate change and guaranteeing sustainable development in the future. Not without reason: agriculture, forestry and other forms of land use are responsible for 23 percent of greenhouse gas emissions. And as much as 80 percent of agricultural land is used for animal production. It quickly becomes clear that our current meat consumption is not in line with the sustainability challenges we are facing.

Own illustration after Heinrich Böll Stiftung, 2018

Insects and their potential for more sustainable nutrition

For years the FAO has been talking about the potential of insects and approximately 2,100 edible species for global food security. They are not only much more sustainable when it comes to production and their ecological footprint, but also their consumption is seen to be much more beneficial for human health.

And indeed, the environmental balance sheet is impressive. Insects produce significantly less greenhouse gases than cattle and pigs and require only a tenth as much land. Whereas one kilogram of beef requires about 15,000 liters of water for production, one kilogram of insects requires an average of only 15 liters. In addition, insects are much more efficient due to their alternating heat, i.e. they do not have to produce any energy to warm the body and produce twelve times as much food per kilogram of feed as beef. And finally, if one considers that almost in every case the entire insect can be eaten (e.g. in crickets it is “only” 80 percent due to the legs), but only about 40 percent of a cow, the higher efficiency becomes clear once again.

Own illustration after Heinrich Böll Stiftung, 2018

Insects and their nutritional and physiological added value

The environmental benefits are complemented by a comparatively excellent nutritional profile: Insects are rich in proteins and at the same time almost free of fats and carbohydrates. Although the contents may vary with regard to species, feeding and life cycle (egg, larva, pupa), protein contents of 45 to 61 percent are not uncommon with regard to dry matter. For example, grasshoppers fed with wheat bran have twice the protein content of other species fed with maize.

Only recently, a study was published in the journal “Frontiers in Nutrition” according to which insects can even protect against cancer, as crickets, grasshoppers and caterpillars have larger amounts of valuable vitamins and minerals with an antioxidant effect than, for example, orange juice. Insects also contain a similar amount of omega-3 fatty acids to fish. Finally, they are an important source of trace elements such as iron and zinc (e.g. many insects contain twice as much iron as beef).

“Not only ecologically, but also nutritionally, there is a lot to be said for insects.”

Even if insects have to be evaluated differently, they are undoubtedly a brilliant alternative to meat. Not only ecologically, but also nutritionally, there is a lot to be said for insects. And also with regard to the welfare of the animals, one seems to be better off here compared to traditional livestock farming. Yet little is known about whether and how sensitive insects are to pain. But the usual killing by freezing comes very close to the “natural fate” of cold-blooded insects, which fall into “hibernation” at low temperatures.

Our diet already knew insects

Now these fundamental assessments are playing two-fold into the cards of social change and with that megatrends such as sustainability and health. But how can it be that insects are still such a big taboo topic in Western cultures? This is particularly surprising, as insects have been on the menu in our latitudes before. The Romans and Greeks already ate locusts and other crawling animals. And in the German federal states of Hesse and Thuringia, as well as France and Luxembourg the cockchafer soup was a seasonally popular food until the 20th century.

These old traditions do not seem to be remembered in the present. The sight of insects is accompanied by a real neophobia, meaning that we are afraid of what is new on our plates. This reaction mechanism is usually only known from children and usually disappears completely during adolescence. Psychologically, this could be explained by the fact that we don’t like to eat what we normally only know from buzzing around the garbage or from living in unkempt corners of the apartment.

“What the farmer does not know, he does not eat”, says an old German proverb and refers to people who are not really open to new things and who prefer the familiar. But if one had asked the German population in the 1970s whether they would have liked to eat sushi, i.e. raw fish, the majority would probably have declined rather gratefully. And even the lobster was nicknamed “cockroach of the seas” 150 years ago because it was a real nuisance. Today, both dishes are usually served under the umbrealla fine dining.

“If one would have asked the German population in the 1970s whether they would have liked to eat sushi, the majority would probably have declined rather gratefully.”

Ento Food as a growing trend

The many “entopreneurs” (of entomophagy, i.e. the consumption of insects) that are trying to make insect food acceptable again in the western industrial nations know that our food culture can change so blatantly. At present, insects in Europe only are able to make it onto the menu of gourmets as avant-garde dinners.

However, the community of “insectivores” (i.e. insect eaters) is growing steadily, which is why there are more and more respective offers. Whether Bugfoundation, which created an insect burger based on the larvae of the buffalo worm; isaac nutrition, which aims to revolutionize the sports food market with an insect protein powder; or Livin Farms, whose insect farm recycles food waste within the local four walls.

It may still be a pronounced niche. But forecasts by some market research institutes already estimate the sector’s turnover for 2023 at over 1 billion US dollars, and by 2030 it should even be 8 billion. Global corporations such as Nestlé and Cargill are keeping an eye on the growing market, and large foundations such as the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation have already provided funding for pioneering companies. No wonder now also large retail chains such as Lidl are jumping on the bandwagon and bringing deep-fried insects into selected stores as snacks.

Whether insects will become a widespread food, as in other parts of the world, is difficult to assess at present. Because still nobody knows whether the mass breeding of insects brings with it similar problems as the conventional cattle breeding. However, it is clear that our food system needs to change against the backdrop of global challenges such as climate change and malnutrition. And crickets, locusts and worms have a lot to offer here.

]]>Why we should rethink sustainabilityhttps://www.danielanthes.com/en/sustainability/
Wed, 26 Jun 2019 09:07:01 +0000http://www.danielanthes.com/?p=7196Sustainability is becoming increasingly important. It has to, because without it there will be no future against the background of aggravating climate change. But the current discussion in society shows...

]]>Sustainability is becoming increasingly important. It has to, because without it there will be no future against the background of aggravating climate change. But the current discussion in society shows that we need to breathe new life into the word ‘sustainability’ – it is high time for a reframing.

Photo: Pine Watt via unsplash

We are treading water.

Without sustainability there is no future, without future there is no sustainability. That is how simple it is for now. But in practice it is currently apparent that it is anything but simple and that not everyone has quite internalized this equation. For half a year now, the Fridays for Future movement – and with it tens of thousands of young people – has been taking to the streets of Germany to demonstrate for more climate protection. In its back, alliances of scientists, entrepreneurs and parents, underlining the urgency of the topic. The reaction of politicians? They are referring to “professionals” who should be left to do this, and to the neglect of compulsory schooling.

And if there are politicians who express a progressive, sustainable idea (for example, fewer cars in city centres, speed limits on motorways, higher prices for flying or even a CO2 tax), the prohibition club is unpacked directly from the other side and every discussion is blighted. “I’m not going to have my car banned and certainly not my schnitzel,” everybody yells out at the top of one’s voice. Is that a good starting point for real change? Absolutely not. Social progress? No, not at all. Opportunities for a future without catastrophic consequences of climate change? The current situation tends towards zero.

Somehow we are treading water. And the issue of sustainability and the need for new production and consumption patterns is anything but new. Already in 1972, the Club of Rome reminded us of the (planetary) limits of growth with a much-noticed publication. In order to prevent irreparable damage to the environment and thus enormous risks for the world population, an “ecological and economic state of equilibrium” was needed. 30 million copies of this publication in about 30 languages later, one wonders what has really happened since time immemorial.

„Sustainability is like teenage sex: Everybody talks about it. Nobody does it very much. And when they do, they don’t do it very well.“

Rethinking sustainability

“Sustainability is like teenage sex. Everybody talks about it. Nobody does it very much. And when they do, they don’t do it very well.”, GreenBiz founder Joel Markower summarized his view of sustainability. And I could not agree. Because it is undoubtedly the case that sustainability in many areas is still associated with something negative, too often and exclusively with restriction and/or even renunciation. Companies only see additional expenditures in the short-term, politicians a horde of potentially frightened industrial voters and the population a life like in the Middle Ages.

Please stop it right here! Before we go back to demoralising ourselves by throwing around some kind of prohibition discussion statements resulting in more and more unconstructive behavior, we should try to understand one thing: Sustainability does not want to limit options, but to create spaces of possibility. And social change does not come about through guilt, but through possibilities. And when it comes to sustainability, we have only seriously exhausted a fraction of conceivable possibilities.

With regard to possible future strategies, this above all means one thing: We must move away from efficiency thinking towards consistency and, most certainly, sufficiency. As cradle to cradle pioneer Prof. Braungart already said: “If a system is destructive, one should not try to make it more efficient. Instead, we should find ways to completely turn it upside down.” In other words, if something is less bad, it is far from good.

Over the years, our cars have become more efficient in their consumption, but in the same breath larger and we have used them more often. Our electric household appliances have also become 37 percent more energy-efficient over the past 30 years, but at the same time electricity consumption has risen by 22 percent. What science calls the “rebound effect” simply means that, despite efficiency gains in many areas, we do not necessarily consume fewer resources and therefore do not live more sustainably than before.

From efficiency to consistency and sufficiency

In view of the fact that the ecological limits of the planetary carrying capacity have already been reached in many areas, eco-effectiveness is increasingly being discussed as a counter-model to eco-efficiency: Radical innovations are intended to replace existing products and technologies or make them more environmentally compatible. When the company adidas manufactures sports shoes from collected “ocean plastic”, this goes into that direction. But compared to the production of meat-looking, tasty and bleeding burger patties from purely plant-based ingredients, it has a light aftertaste of an advertising stunt focusing solely on symptoms.

And, of course, e-mobility should also be mentioned as a prime example of eco-effective innovation, but only as long as the electricity that drives it is also generated from renewable energy sources. In addition, we would also need a solution for the batteries that is suitable for circulation, so that sooner or later – due to the rebound effect – we do not reach the planetary limits here as well.

„For companies and politicians, the rebound effect – above all – means that they cannot solely rely on technological solutions in the future.“

For companies and politicians, the rebound effect – above all – means that they cannot solely rely on technological solutions in the future. A sustainable transformation of our society therefore requires (at least) strategies that lead to an absolute reduction in our consumption of energy and natural resources. It is therefore also a question of culture. Genuine sustainability can only be achieved if nature-compatible, technical innovations meet changed production and consumption patterns.

This reveals a huge potential for the pioneers of sustainable economic paradigms who understand growth not quantitatively but qualitatively – and thus also operate successfully within a finite terrestrial system. One could say that we need more players in an empowering and enabling economy. Politicians must help with this transformation by setting appropriate (ordoliberal) framework conditions.

Following example: It is quite preposterous that today it is still cheaper for companies in the food industry to simply throw away and destroy perfectly edible food instead of redistributing them – be it to charitable organisations, animal feeding or start-ups that upcyclize them. Whether we then implement a carrot or stick model and promise companies tax incentives or fines can still be discussed. But it is clear that we have to adapt the system in this respect.

Because perhaps one can hardly imagine how many 1.3 billion tons of food wasted worldwide every year are at the end of the day. But if you consider that we are artificially and thus unnecessarily creating the third-largest CO2 emitter (after China and the USA), fueling climate change for nothing, you should be able to act quickly.

Growth with real added value

But where we cannot get around in this context: The question of growth. For decades, economic growth, i.e. purely quantitative growth, was equated with prosperity. Now we have recently reached a point where we fundamentally question the notion of “ever higher, ever further, ever faster”.

But don not worry: the end of traditional growth does not necessarily mean the end of growth in general. Smith, Marx and Mill already assumed that the economy was heading for a stationary state. But it is precisely then that real growth – not material, but intellectual and cultural – begins – the growth of the purpose economy! From a strategic point of view, this leads to the dissolution of growth constraints. This does not mean a rejection of entrepreneurial growth, but the restoration of entrepreneurial freedom of decision – to grow, to shrink, to change, to reinvent oneself.

„Where the world seems to become more and more complex and confusing due to the blind urge for growth, people long for naturalness, authenticity and simplicity.“

Against this background, the major trends of slowness and mindfulness can also be explained, which are becoming more and more noticeable both in the entrepreneurial context, but also the social context in general. Where the world seems to become more and more complex and confusing due to the blind urge for growth (and we are more and more overwhelmed by this), we humans long for naturalness, authenticity and simplicity. But this is not about going back, but about going forward into the future.

We want to get out of the hamster wheel of the “always higher, always further, always more.” Slow food or minimalism, for example, have become so popular because they – due to increased sustainability and responsibility towards the world and fellow human beings – enable more resonance and thus increase individual well-being.

Rethinking sustainability

Which brings us back to the crux of the matter: More sustainability always means more health, more quality of life and therefore more future fitness. At the Zukunftsinstitut we are talking about “Next Growth” – a new vision of growth and life. The Wuppertal Institute around Prof. Schneidewind calls it “art of the future” focusing on the culture of change. Both approaches essentially mean the same thing: A transformation of our current system – and thus the way we make politics, economics, consume and live in general.

Perhaps our language is also to blame for the fact that we environemtalists have been cooking our own soup for decades and have no’t managed to convince the social centre with our visions for a better world. Communication about impending catastrophes and appeals to fear and anxiety may increase attention, but it also triggers defensive behavior and avoidance reactions. Catastrophism does not bring people into action, but paralyzes them and lets them react defensively. “If the world ends anyway, I can take my SUV and go 200 km/h over the motorway before I kill my 2 Euro discount steaks a second time on my brand-new Weber grill.”

„Sustainability needs a change of scenery.“

Sustainability needs a change of scenery. We have to succeed in creating personal relevance – for everyone in the here and now. We have to make sustainable behaviour not only easier, but also cheaper and more desirable. It should therefore not be a question of banning cars, but of how we can make our cities more bicycle-friendly and thus more livable in general. It should not be about banning meat, but about real prices for meat (i.e. including external costs!) and enjoyable alternatives beyond boring veggie schnitzels. It should not be about minimalism and the compulsion to do without, but about maximalism and thus the freedom to reduce one’s consumption to a beneficial and experience-oriented level.

As I have written above: Change comes from opportunities. And it is generally driven by vision and urgency – both things we can feel in our current social situation. Now we are all responsible. In practical terms, this also means that schnitzel or flying shame (from its Swedish counterpart “flygskam”) are currently the subject of much heated debate, but do not necessarily change anything about the underlying system. As long as meat and flying are not priced with a view to sustainable development and – much worse – are subsidized, the incentives for irresponsible consumption remain too high.

What we should be doing?

politics must make sustainable living easier and cheaper;

science, as a “science of possibility”, must continuously design more sustainable social and economic models;

civil society, with its pioneers, has to exemplify these utopias in real laboratories, and

companies then have to carry them into the middle of society.

It is still possible that we can manage this transformation “by design” and thus democratically, socially acceptable and taking into account many to all needs. And thus not “by desaster”, unplanned and caused by catastrophes. This requires a mindset of critical future optimism, a possibilism, that emphasizes the potential of our world in view of the great challenges posed by climate change and the like. In contrast to extreme optimism, it differs in that evil and bad are neither excluded nor ignored. Positive change is possible precisely because of such problems.

]]>Why minimalism is actually maximalismhttps://www.danielanthes.com/en/minimalismus/
Mon, 06 May 2019 07:12:29 +0000http://www.danielanthes.com/?p=7087Postmodern minimalism is the trend of conscious and attentive renunciation. For some, it is a kind of psychological self-help to cope with the oversupply of the present. For others, it...

]]>Postmodern minimalism is the trend of conscious and attentive renunciation. For some, it is a kind of psychological self-help to cope with the oversupply of the present. For others, it is the claim to contribute to more sustainability in society through their own consumer behaviour. Great goals, which the term ‘minimalism’ alone falls short of expressing – time for a reframing!

Photo by Sarah Dorweiler on Unsplash

Whether the “333 challenge”, whose aim is to get by with only 33 items of clothing for three months, including jackets, shoes, bags and accessories; the German movie “100 Things”, in which Florian David Fitz and Matthias Schweighöfer in their roles as hardcore materialists suddenly have to be content with a limited number of things; or the recently published book “Einfach Familie leben”, which is intended to serve the reader as a guide for a sustainable life with children. They all share a central theme: minimalism. The promise: Consumption or non-consumption does not only improve the planet as a whole, but also the individual well-being of us humans. Let’s have a look at one of the most prominent trends of the present.

Motives of minimalists

The trend towards postmodern minimalism is primarily a phenomenon of our prosperity culture and can therefore only be understood by those who live in too much. You have to have experienced a distinct consumer culture with new smartphones bought every year, fashion lines that are becoming shorter and shorter, and supermarket strawberries in January in order to consciously decide in favour of careful renunciation. The fundamental equation behind downsizing in today’s private life: The less a person owna, the more independent he or she is of consumer pressures, the better off he or she is eventually.

“The trend towards minimalism is primarily a phenomenon of our prosperity culture and can only be understood by those who live in too much.”

Although renunciation may be the common denominator of all minimalists, the motives behind are of a different nature. For some, the new minimalism is a kind of psychological self-help to cope with the oversupply and ever-availability of information and products of all kinds. One therefore wants to increase one’s own level of well-being. The US psychologist Barry Schwartz, in this context, speaks of the paradox of choice, according to which too many options do not give us a feeling of freedom, but – quite on the contrary – paralyze us and ultimately make us extremely unhappy. This feeling is familiar to anyone who has ever spent ten minutes in front of the supermarket shelf and could not decide on one of the twelve vanilla yoghurts.

For others, conscious renunciation is linked to the personal claim to make society more sustainable through their own (in this case reduced) consumer behavior. This means: while the motivation of some is rather self-focused nature, others have ethical and ecological motives. Thus the pendulum oscillates between individual and social motivation. The basic idea is based on the assumption that growth and profit maximization have had their days as ruling principles. The current growth society of the “ever faster, higher and more” and the resulting waste culture are increasingly questioned critically.

A society of abundance

And it is true: We live in abundance. Never before in human history have we had such an abundance and variety of food and consumer goods at our disposal – and this at extremely low prices. One example: Every year around 100 billion new items of clothing arrive in our shopping centers and boutiques. And so – hardly surprisingly – the average number of fashion items purchased in Germany almost doubled between 2000 and 2010; but not the money spent on it. The shopping frenzy is demonstrably like a drug frenzy: In the short term we experience feelings of happiness and exaltation (thanks to the reward centre of our forebrain), but already after a short time we wake up with great disillusionment and usually even remorse.

And so our wardrobes are bursting at the seams. In the morning we spend more time picking out the clothes for the day than the washing machine finally needs to clean them. Decluttering became a recipe for success and helped Japanese Marie Kondo to worldwide fame (e.g. being on the TIME Magazine list of the 100 most influential people in the world) with her “magic cleaning” method. Her three bestselling books by now have sold seven million copies. Since then they have guided us step by step in 27 languages on how to put this chaos behind us. Spoiler: As much sense as I see in tidying up overcrowded wardrobes, I don’t think it makes much sense to simply dispose of what has been sorted out. To put it in Marie Kondo’s words: redistribute or up-cycling would really “spark my joy”!

The general simplification of fashion to a few essential items of clothing is a blow to the dominance of the fashion industry. And at the same time it appeals to growth critics and reduction disciples alike. Start-ups take advantage of this and offer timeless basic clothing without seasonal goods or any fashion trends. On the one hand, wearing the same clothes (or favorite pieces of clothing) lets us live like a figure in a comic book. On the other hand, it is something like a public defense against the dictates of fast fashion companies.

Renunciation that is actually wealth

The Japanese proverb “The disorder in the room corresponds to the disorder in the heart” does not come by chance. The clearing up and thus the (temporary) renunciation or reduction enables us to really value the things we have and to experience them with increased intensity. This is good for us, because we can perceive conscious pleasure or joy. This is based on a new longing for clarity, order and well-being. And it is clear that “less is more” does not only refer to the wardrobe, but to all areas of life – from living to media behavior to nutrition.

“The reduction enables us to value the things we still have more and to experience them with an increased intensity.”

In order to be able to live “less is more” effectively, we have to understand that this is not about painful asceticism, which restricts our life or even lets us live like in the Middle Ages. No, it is about the complete opposite: healthy satisfaction through conscious consumption. Perhaps this is one of the reasons why the term “minimalism” is not really appropriate, since at first it only transports the “means of restriction”, but not the resulting “purpose of a better feeling” for the individual.

It is becoming clear that the attraction that increased consumption has had on us for a long time is dwindling. Old status thinking is breaking up, materialism is crumbling. In the future prosperity will not be defined by ownership, but by experience and time. Immaterial things such as “time for oneself” are already indispensable for nine out of ten Germans today.

We call this value attitude lowsumerism. And by this we mean that only as much is consumed as is really needed. After all, a large part of our consumption is based on artificially created needs. And so the freedom of renunciation leads to a very special wealth: wealth through a reduction of one’s own complexity, as well as that there is more for others. In this sense, minimalism is actually a maximalism! Because essentially it satisfies our longing for better quality of life. But it also offers us orientation and grounding in a world that is characterized by an oversupply of solutions and truths and therefore leads to the alienation of the ego from its actual needs.

_____

Further information:

I had the pleasure to be invited to “Planet Wissen” of the German TV channel WDR as an expert on exactly this topic. You can watch the whole show here (unfortunately only in German):

I would also like to recommend the following study, which examines the megatrend “mindfulness” not only with regard to minimalism, but also, for example, with regard to digitization, health and leadership.

]]>Food Trends Reducing Food Wastehttps://www.danielanthes.com/en/foodlovetrends/
Wed, 10 Apr 2019 05:22:08 +0000http://www.danielanthes.com/?p=7039The food industry seems to be subject to new developments and ever faster changes like no other industry. Food trends are indicators of new consumer needs that should to be...

]]>The food industry seems to be subject to new developments and ever faster changes like no other industry. Food trends are indicators of new consumer needs that should to be met with new products and services. After convenience and health, sustainability is now playing an increasingly important role – making food waste the starting point for new business models.

Photo by Markus Spiske on Unsplash

Industrialisation and globalisation of our food have lead to us having all kinds of food available nearly every day all year round. On the one hand, this is great news, as this has enabled us to experience diversity, curiosity and individualisation in eating. On the other hand, this is more and more pushing us into an affluent society that is increasingly becoming a society of waste. And somewhere that’s not really surprising, because if there’s a lot of something at hand, it’s automatically worth less.

As a result, around 1.3 billion tons of edible food are currently thrown away worldwide every year. This corresponds to about one third of global food production. 198 million hectares of land are cultivated with food that we ultimately do not consume – roughly the size of Mexico! In Germany, too, many foods are thrown away: Over 18 million tons and thus more than a third of current food consumption ends up in the garbage bin every year. At 44 percent, fruit and vegetables account for almost half of our food waste.

„Smooth skin, glossy appearance and perfect dimensions – sounds like a slogan from the beauty industry, but it has also become our expectation towards food.“

Smooth skin, glossy appearance and perfect dimensions – sounds like a slogan from the beauty industry, but it has also become our expectation towards food. In fact, they describe the requirements of society and the food industry regarding the appearance of fruit and vegetables – and are therefore an important cause of our food waste. Because it has to be shapely and flawless, otherwise there must be something wrong with it!

Ugly food movement

However, there are now more and more initiatives that no longer want to accept this artificial perfectionism in the food industry and associated waste. The “Ugly Food Movement” focuses on the crooked and unshapely and wants to remind society about the uniqueness of agricultural produce.

In terms of taste and nutrient content, these products don’t need to hide anyway. The EU-funded Qlif study considers 180 scientific publications and proves that organic foods (which often produce the „wonderlings“) usually contain more nutrients, because they develop their own “defences” in the fight against external influences due to less fertilization and pesticide treatment. This leads to the fact that beside lots of vitamins, these provide also more antioxidants (up to 40 per cent) for humans. Stress during plant growth makes them stronger and healthier!

More and more established retail companies are jumping on the sustainability bandwagon and sell “bulky” fruit and vegetables as a concrete measure against the throwaway culture in their supermarkets. What everyone seems to have understood: The word “ugly” is not really good for marketing and communication. Whether “Inglorious Fruits & Vegetables” (at Intermaché in France), “wonky” (at ASDA in England), “naturally imperfect” (at Loblaws in Canada), “Produce with personality” (at Giant Eagle in the USA), “Ünique” (at Coop in Switzerland), the “organic heroes” (at Penny in Germany) or even as “wonderlings” (at REWE Austria) – the wording in respective displays tries to help the much too long neglected foods with charismatic corners and edges to gain more prestige again.

And the crooked cucumbers, strangely shaped potatoes, discoloured lemons and shapeless carrots seem to go down well with customers. For example, the German discount chain Penny, after one year of selling the organic heroes, drew a surprisingly positive balance: the quantities sold rose so quickly that those responsible immediately expanded the range of crooked vegetables from 13 to 21 varieties. And this even though the crooked foods were not even cheaper than the normal fruits and vegetables.

Change of our food culture

At the end of the day, these supermarket initiatives are part of overall societal developments that are moving us – again – towards the appreciation of food. They reflect the longings and feelings of pioneers and social avant-gardes. It is precisely because we have so much choice of food that we should eventually value the food we consume.

„It is precisely because we have so much choice of food that we should value the food we consume.“

Whether Zero Waste, Nose-to-Tail and Leaf-to-Root or Local Food, we are again – at least in niches – taking our food more seriously and setting new standards in sustainability. In futurology, this is referred to as food trends, which create new products, services or business models due to new or unsatisfied needs in society. However, in order to better understand and classify these trends, one must always keep one thing in mind: These phenomena are always the result of overarching megatrends – global and epochal developments in our society. Those “slow avalanches of change” change the world slowly, but fundamentally and in the long term.

Eigene Darstellung nach Zukunftsinstitut (2017)

For example, the globalisation of our food has led us to observe a return to the regional and local, which is expressed, for example, in the food trends “local food” or “slow food” (see my text on slowness): Increasingly industrialised and globally harmonising eating solutions have created a longing for regionality (e.g. regional products and production methods), familiarity, authenticity and naturalness. Once again, we frequently ask where our food comes from and how it originated, who is behind the products and what story they want to tell us. So it is not so much the plate itself as the way to it that is more and more the measure of all things.

Now let’s take a look at a few selected food trends that – at least implicitly – deal with the issue of food waste by contributing to more food appreciation:

Zero Waste

Our consumer culture has led us to produce large quantities of garbage – be it packaging or the food itself. The zero-waste approach aims to tackle this problem and avoid waste.

Example: The restaurant “Silo” in Brighton (Great Britain) is regarded as the first zero-waste restaurant in the world: no plastic packaging, recycled furniture and a 28,000 euro composting machine called “Bertha”, which converts food waste into compost for the own garden.

Leaf-to-Root & Nose-to-Tail

Abundance has led to the point of us starting to eat only the fillet and the most beautiful part of the fruit. The Nose-to-Tail (meat) and Leaf-to-Root (fruit & vegetables) trends show that the whole product can be used in many foods and that there is an enormous potential for enjoyment apart from the classic parts.

Example: The restaurant „Gußhaus“ in Vienna (Austria) shows that “Eat it all” is not only about sustainability, but also about enjoyment. Here Beuschel (upper intestines of the animal) is the absolute bestseller. And avant-garde farmer Matthias Hollenstein from Zurich sells things that are otherwise not really visible to the consumer – such as beetroot leaves or fennel roots.

Local & Seasonal Food

A lack of clarity and increasingly standardised solutions drive the desire for regionality, familiarity, authenticity and naturalness. Traditional dishes and methods of preparation with local and seasonal products promise pleasure, identification and meaning.

Example: The Michelin starred cuisine in particular is currently making use of this trend. Whether the Seven Swans in Frankfurt (Germany) or the Nobelhart & Schmutzig in Berlin (Germany) – cooking is only done with local (mostly Permian cultivated) foods that are in season.

DIY Food

Transparency, emancipation and self-initiative instead of standardised and non-transparent processes in the food industry – the “Do it yourself” culture calls for self-made and more appreciation.

Example: “Germany is bubbling again”, one could recently read in the news media. This refers to the rediscovered joy in old preservation techniques such as fermentation. Now the Sauerkraut is produced on one’s own, free of additives and flavour materials.

The past decades of development and progress in the food industry have brought us more and more to a point where we are fundamentally questioning the way we feed ourselves and what that means for us and the environment. The above mentioned food trends are, so to speak, social counter-impulses to the “ever higher, ever faster, ever further” of the food industry, which is exclusively geared towards profit. But if in the end they would bring us closer to our food again and increase our appreciation for the products, everyone would benefit, wouldn’t they?

_____

This text is a slightly modified excerpt from my book “Weil wir Essen lieben – vom achtamen Umgang mit Lebensmitteln”, which I wrote with Katharina Schulenburg. More information and order at https://oekom.de/nc/buecher/fachbuch/konsum-ernaehrung/buch/weil-wir-essen-lieben.html

]]>Fasting as a social experiment for more mindfulnesshttps://www.danielanthes.com/en/fasten/
Wed, 27 Mar 2019 07:21:40 +0000http://www.danielanthes.com/?p=6988Fasting time! Happy time? The commandment of abstinence has left its religious corner and arrived in the middle of society. But why do people actually practice renunciation? What is fasting?...

]]>Fasting time! Happy time? The commandment of abstinence has left its religious corner and arrived in the middle of society. But why do people actually practice renunciation? What is fasting? And imagine that we could use fasting as a social experiment for more sustainability and mindfulness – a game of make-believe.

Photo by Mukul Wadhwa on Unsplash

Origin and change of the fasting culture

Fasting is nothing new. For almost 2,000 years the phenomenon of the “passion time” or “Easter penitential period” has been known as preparation for the Easter high festival. The term fasting in its original meaning means as much as to hold fast, namely to the commandment of abstinence – in the Catholic Church during the time between Ash Wednesday and Good Friday. That makes 40 days of abstinence under strict rules of fasting.

But where in former times people used to fast primarily to repent, to come closer to God and thus to bring about their own salvation, today in the rarest cases there are such religious motives at work. On the contrary, one does not fast for a supposedly higher power or time after one’s own life, but for oneself – in the here and now. Consequently, fasting is primarily about one’s own health, not less often about self-discipline and more and more about sustainability. Lent is often a welcome time to finally implement the ambitious New Year’s resolutions.

„Fasting is primarily about one’s own health, not less often about self-discipline and more and more about sustainability.“

And indeed, fasting is becoming more and more popular. The research company forsa has been conducting annual surveys since 2012 and was able to announce a new record in its last results report this year: At 63 percent, more people than ever before think it makes sense to avoid certain stimulants or consumer goods for several weeks. In the first edition of the survey, this figure was just over 50 percent. Young people, in particular, are more inclined to fasting or to give up certain foods for a limited period of time. 81 percent of 18-29 year olds think fasting makes sense. Among the 30-44 year olds, the figure is just under 70 percent, whereas only one in two of the over-60 year olds considers fasting to be meaningful.

Consumption overload in the multi-option society

Actually, it’s a little paradoxical. We live in a time that stands for everything else, but not really for mindful consumption or even renunciation. We are part of a consumer society that is at home in abundance. The maxim “higher, faster, further” has become the central principle of production and consumption and allows us to experience an unprecedented diversity and short-livedness of all conceivable goods – whether food, clothing or electronic devices. Limitation and asceticism? Obviously out of place.

But these ever-increasing choices in our “multi-option society” are increasingly missing their true meaning: they do not make us freer and happier, but overtax us and make us sick. The US psychologist Barry Schwartz speaks of the “paradox of choice” and means the fact that too many choices paralyze us and consequently make us dissatisfied.

And this may be the reason why fasting has now arrived in the middle of society. People practice renunciation for a certain time in order to get orientation and clarity back. It is a matter of adjusting one’s own focus. What is important to me? What is good for me? What do I really need to be happy? The renunciation and conscious reduction of consumption should help to increase personal health and the individual level of well-being – let’s just call it healthisfaction.

„People practice renunciation in order to get back orientation and clarity. It is a matter of adjusting one’s own focus.“

The classics of fasting are often responsible for a guilty conscience – be it with regard to one’s own health or the sustainability of one’s own lifestyle. According to the latest available surveys, people fast mainly alcohol and sweets. But where last year the topic of meat ranked third with 35 percent behind the top fasting duo, in 2019 it is already almost 50 percent. Recent developments in the food industry and corresponding offers towards vegetarianism and veganism make this kind of fasting more and more bearable even for confirmed carnivores (see my article on the meat consumption of tomorrow).

Fasting as a revelation of the zeitgeist

One can also often see the spirit of the times and topics that are currently hotly debated in society from what is being fasted. And so not only is television being increasingly put aside for a while, but above all mobile phones and computers – 29 percent of Germans state that they consciously want to stay offline for a while. The evergreen topic of digitization seems to be reaching its limits here and there, especially in the private sector. Ever new data scandals, rampant hate culture in social media and spreading fake news undoubtedly make the (mostly temporary) exit easier.

Own illustration after forsa, 2019

And finally, the crumbling of the facade of Germany’s favorite status symbol is becoming more and more obvious: one in five people want to do without the car. Diesel gates and consumer deceptions by manufacturers on the one hand, but also concerns due to clogged and fine dust polluted city centres on the other, seem to favor the step into (temporary) car independence. And if the city even offers you a free public transport ticket including a car sharing voucher in exchange for you not using your car, car fasting can mean a real wealth of mobility.

Of course you have to evaluate these figures with caution. And fasting per se should not and cannot be seen as an agreed future for new social needs. But what if we were to regard these “signs of abandonment” and the associated alternative consumption patterns as real laboratories? What if we were to use fasting as a field of experimentation for new societal systems towards greater mindfulness and sustainability?

Imagine there would be a speed limit of 130 km/h on German motorways for 40 days; or a car ban in German city centres; or health traffic lights on sweets and alcohol in supermarkets, or real and thus more expensive prices on meat, which would then inevitably lead to fasting here and there. What do you think – would we be off better or worse? What would that do to our society?

Mindfulness and conscious consumption

I am sure that this could help us as a society to appreciate the things of our consumption more and to perceive them more intensively. Consumption would again more frequently be accompanied by real enjoyment and true joy, since we would once again balance certain self-evident things whose excesses demonstrably harm us and our environment. Mindfulness would become a companion in our consumer decisions and above all experiences. This special form of temporary minimalism, as I now simply translate fasting, may lure us out of supposed comfort zones and bring us into real areas of well-being.

„This special form of temporary minimalism may lure us out of supposed comfort zones and bring us into real areas of well-being.“

One thing is clear: Mindfulness is the answer to the increasing complexity and madness of our time and thus a fundamental counter impulse to the omnipresent culture of waste and excitement. Fasting has the potential to bring people back to the point where you ask yourself what does you good and what do you really need to be happy. And don’t get me wrong: In the end, it’s not about total renunciation, but about a more conscious, even more mindful measure. If, through personal and inspirational success stories, it can also help to make our consumption behavior more sustainable in general, we should perhaps fast more often. All of us, of course, so that no one feels disadvantaged. And hey, it’s only temporary. Or isn’t it?

By the way, I am fasting waste at the moment and fortunately I am also an ambassador of the “waste fasting” of the German Environmental Aid. Food waste basically is unnecessary, and fasting simply means a more mindful handling of our food. More on https://www.duh.de/verschwendungsfasten-2019/

My television interview (only in German) in the show “defacto” under the title „Ritual oder trend: why do you fast?“:

]]>Let’s talk about sustainability, E.ON!https://www.danielanthes.com/en/letstalk-eon/
Mon, 25 Feb 2019 17:45:24 +0000http://www.danielanthes.com/?p=6849E.ON is an international, privately owned energy supplier based in Essen, Germany, and has around 43,000 employees. Back in 2016, E.ON was the first major European energy company to fully...

]]>E.ON is an international, privately owned energy supplier based in Essen, Germany, and has around 43,000 employees. Back in 2016, E.ON was the first major European energy company to fully focus on the new energy world, knowing that as an energy company they have an important role to play in climate protection. This is why I talked to David Radermacher, Vice President of Sustainability at E.ON.

David Radermacher: Sustainability to me means considering short and long-term implications on the environment, society and future generations in everything we do.

Anthes: How does your organization contribute to sustainability worldwide?

Radermacher: E.ON is the Energiewende-Company fully focusing on the new energy world. We install renewable energies, develop innovative and sustainable energy solutions for our customers and make our energy networks fit for the new energy world. We strive to be fore-runner of the distributed, climate-friendly energy world in Europe and act on climate through our core business.

Anthes: What is the main driver of your company’s sustainability activities nowdays, and how is that going to look like in the future?

Radermacher: We do not only want to help customers to be more sustainable and climate-friendly. It takes everyone’s individual effort. Therefore, we take our own share and reduce our own emissions. But we also focus on human rights and sustainability in our supply chain, because sustainable energy solutions require sustainable business practices.

Anthes: If you had all the power & money in the world, what would you do to change the world for the better?

Radermacher: I would focus on delivering SDGs 2 (zero hunger) and 4 (quality education). As a global society we need to be able to stop hunger worldwide. And education is the key to equality and well-being worldwide, but also to climate protection.

Anthes: What do you think is going to be the next big thing “in sustainability”?

Radermacher: I believe we will see sustainable finance and sustainable investing to be the new normal.

Anthes: Everybody has to pull together – that’s right. But who really needs to change his doing in order for our world to change for the better?

Radermacher: I believe it requires everyone’s individual effort. If we look at companies, regarding climate change we need to find new ways of going beyond short terminism.

Anthes: How will the world look like in 2050? Which megatrend will have the biggest impact?

Radermacher: I don’t know what the world will look like in 2050. But I hope that we can look back and state: “The World stood together to limit global warming to less than 1.5°C and it was tough, but we managed to work together to hand this world over to our children in a stable condition.”

Anthes: Do you know how big or small your personal carbon footprint is? Please give us a (if necessary wild guess) figure.

Radermacher: My footprint is probably around 11 t CO2, which is too high.

Anthes: In your personal life, what do you do to live more sustainably?

Radermacher: I recently ordered an electric vehicle and I try to limit flying to a minimum. I took the train for all business travels besides one exception this year. I do not eat meat and focus on buying regional and seasonal food. These are small things, but I believe it is about doing many small steps towards living sustainably.

]]>Superfood – sustainable food trend or just a hype?https://www.danielanthes.com/en/superfood/
Sun, 24 Feb 2019 16:31:56 +0000http://www.danielanthes.com/?p=6933Superfoods are on everyone’s lips – not only figuratively, but also literally. But what exactly is behind the nuts, berries & pseudo-cereals that are supposed to give us superpowers? Do...

]]>Superfoods are on everyone’s lips – not only figuratively, but also literally. But what exactly is behind the nuts, berries & pseudo-cereals that are supposed to give us superpowers? Do they keep what they promise? What about sustainability? And where does the great resonance in society come from?

Photo by Harvard T.H. Chan

Almost 3.6 million pictures reveal themselves when you search under the hashtag #superfood on Instagram. Google even spits out as many as 226 million posts. And no TV show with a culinary program can without content about goji berries, chia seeds or avocado anymore. Superfoods are on everyone’s lips – not only figuratively, but also literally. But what is behind one of the greatest nutritional phenomena of our time? Or should we better say: Hypes?

The term “superfood” is neither new nor protected nor uniformly defined

If you take a look back at the beginnings, you will notice that superfoods aren’t really a totally new thing. The first mention goes back to the beginning of the 20th century, when the US company United Fruit Company ran a large advertising campaign for the bananas that were already imported on a large scale at that time. Not only are bananas extremely nutritious and easy to digest, but they are also available everywhere, comparatively cheap and naturally packaged – hence a superfood they told their existing and potential customers! That’s why you would be able to add them to your cereals for breakfast, your salad for lunch or even your meat dish for dinner. But what was already difficult to grasp back then hasn’t really changed to this day.

One thing is clear: the term “superfood” is not protected. There is also no official or legally binding definition. The Oxford Dictionary defines superfoods as “nutrient-rich foods that are particularly beneficial to health and well-being”. And this is probably the very reason why we’re allowed to find out about a new superfood every week through company advertisements, lifestyle magazines or our neighbourhood foodie.

The avocado, in particular, has had an almost unbelievable career. One could also say that we’re living – from a culinary point of view – in the decade of the avocado. Hardly any café and its breakfast menu can do without avocado toast or avocado smoothie. Within just two years, European consumption has risen by 65 percent. And at first glance this doesn’t seem surprising, since it’s rich in vitamins, potassium and above all unsaturated fatty acids.

Domestic “superfood” scores points in terms of health and sustainability

But the Irish star chef JP McMahon doesn’t call the pear-shaped berry fruit “Mexico’s blood diamond” completely without reason – the increased demand in western societies has lead to catastrophic production conditions in the global south. Mexico, for example, as the world champion avocado exporter, is now suffering not only from brutal gangs blackmailing farmers and packers for protection money, but also from considerable health damage to the local population due to the use of pesticides and fertilizers; not to mention the environmental consequences of massive deforestation for the plantations and the high water consumption for cultivation.

But not only the avocado is more than questionable from an ecological and social point of view. Other highly praised superfoods such as quinoa, chia seeds, goji berries and acai berries are – for us – also one thing above all else at the end of the day: exotic. In other words, they have several thousand kilometers on their back before they end up on our supermarket shelves. On the one hand, this is a great development, as globalization brings an unprecedented diversity to our shopping basket. On the other hand, however, our rising consumption also contributes to distribution conflicts, rising prices for the local population and ecological damage caused by extensive monocultures in the producing countries.

Back to the vague definition of superfoods: So they’re a matter of promoting health and well-being. But how good are the exotic superfoods advertised in the media and prominently on supermarket shelves really? And aren’t there possibly local foods that have a similarly beneficial nutrient profile?

Let’s look at another export hit whose sales have multiplied by a factor of 100,000 in just four years: chia seeds. Whether in bread, biscuits, energy bars, muesli or pudding – Chia seeds are everywhere. And the health promise is no small thing: the inconspicuous small grains aren’t only considered to be very healthy, but are even supposed to help lose weight.

But if you compare, for example, the high omega-3 fatty acids, dietary fibres or protein content with the local linseed, the latter don’t have to hide at all. On the contrary: the nutrient balance is sometimes even more advantageous – with a much better ecological balance. And with less than one seventh of the purchase price of chia seeds, linseeds are even way cheaper.

Own illustration. Data source: Zentrum der Gesundheit

You could do this kind of comparison of exotic superfood and domestic alternatives with a bunch of other examples. And no matter whether goji berry vs. blueberry, acerola vs. sea buckthorn, quinoa vs. millet or spirulina vs. wheatgrass – local superfoods are always on a par in terms of health benefits, and in addition much more sustainable and cheaper due to the regional production.

Health, Individualisation & mobility as central drivers

So why is there still an increased demand for the miraculous exotics from faraway countries? Here we need to take a step back and look at social change. The central driver of this is the health megatrend, which is fundamentally shifting our diet towards healthier foods. Particularly in German-speaking countries, eating is increasingly taking place in the tension area between enjoyment, ethics and health. According to the TK survey, Germans now consider “healthy” to be the most important aspect of their diet; two years ago, the answer most often mentioned was “tasty”. Aspects such as “low in calories”, “cheap” or “fast” are now far behind.

In addition, there is the megatrend of mobility, which is not only allowing our society to travel increasingly with data due to digitalization, but also physically in connection with new working environments and life models. And so the traditional three meals of breakfast, lunch and dinner often no longer fit in with everyday life, which has become much more mobile, connected and individualized as a result. Superfoods promise to be the ideal solution, as they are often used in snacks that are ready-to-eat.

Snacking industry as trend epicentre of the change in our eating culture

Overall, it seems, the snacking industry has become the trend epicentre of change in our eating culture due to modern lifestyles. But today’s snacks are no longer comparable to the snacks of the past. A few years ago, snacks were about rewards, exceptions or special occasions (and therefore sweet and fatty treats), but today hunger, energy and nutrients are in the foreground. Freshness, naturalness and self-optimization are therefore increasingly finding their way into snack offerings. And “New Snacking” is thus becoming an important food trend, especially in urban everyday culture, as a result of the central megatrends of our time.

„Freshness, naturalness and self-optimization are increasingly finding their way into snack offerings.“

Superfoods, on the other hand, are not a food trend per se, and this has to be expressly distinguished at this point. However, advertising and marketing departments know how to skillfully present the expectations and social needs placed on them in terms of health, flexibility and individuality. But at the end of the day, they are microtrends or hypes in product worlds that take place against the background of larger food trends. Whether new snacking, functional food or clean eating – consumers are increasingly asking for products that enable them to find healthy and high-quality eating solutions. But as we now know, this doesn’t always require exotic products from overseas with the most flashy advertising slogans.

]]>How the generation global is shaping the climate movementhttps://www.danielanthes.com/en/generationglobal/
Sun, 17 Feb 2019 18:40:10 +0000http://www.danielanthes.com/?p=6889Young people all over the world are taking to the streets to strike for more climate protection. Generation Global is a growing generation of world citizens who see global problems...

]]>Young people all over the world are taking to the streets to strike for more climate protection. Generation Global is a growing generation of world citizens who see global problems such as climate change and resource scarcity as their own. And thus marks the starting point of a new sustainability movement: Local commitment for global impact.

Photo by Ben White on Unsplash

Greta Thurnberg, Luisa Neubauer and Jakob Blasel – these are the names we are currently allowed to read more frequently in the news. #Fridaysforfuture and #SchoolsStrike4Climate have been among the top trend hashtags on Twitter for days now. And talk shows and TV magazines around the world are suddenly once again talking about climate change, activism and social change towards greater sustainability. What happened?

A good three years ago, at the United Nations climate summit in Paris, practically all the countries of the world signed a binding international agreement to limit global warming to well below 2 degrees Celsius. Efforts would even be made to limit it to 1.5 degrees. But the euphoria of this historic moment was slowly followed by disillusionment: Leading countries of the world threaten to miss their climate targets – from Germany via the Netherlands to, of course, the USA. With Brazil, China and Japan, only three G20 countries are on their way to achieving their goals.

The world is standing with its back to the wall. But now the following is happening: We are witnessing a new global environmental movement. It is supported and driven by a growing generation of young people who see global problems such as climate change and resource scarcity as their own. And this is precisely where the great potential lies: When asked about their own identity, this generation sees itself above all as citizens of the world. The Generation Global, as the Zukunftsinstitut calls it, no longer identifies itself with nation states, but above all with other people who share its own values and can be enthusiastic about the same cause.

„We are witnessing a new global environmental movement.“

For weeks, thousands of schoolchildren have been taking to the streets on Fridays to demonstrate in front of their parliaments for more climate protection. More precisely, to strike, because they do it during school time. And yes, this is a deliberately calculated violation of existing rules, as the movement sees the mistakes of global climate policies as a much more serious violation of the social contract for the future. Gone are the days when on weekends small groups stood on main urban shopping streets to collect signatures for more animal welfare or fair-trade products. Today, tens of thousands of people are walking through the government quarters, holding up signs with “Skolstrejk för Klimatet”, “Stop climate change!” or “We don’t have time!”.

50 percent of the world’s population is younger than 30 years. Until recently, however, they played hardly any role in political events, especially in world politics. The last time so many young people took part in a political demonstration is a long time ago. But today’s movement is not just a movement of followers, it is an initiating and driving force. And thanks to digital networks, such interest groups and initiatives can now be organised easily and across borders in no time. The Generation Global is smart, and because of the digitality it lives in, it is also enormously powerful.

Another important innovation is that no political colour is needed for such political commitment. Although the younger population’s interest in political and social participation is growing again, parties or a division into political camps are no longer of interest. The dichotomy between “right” and “left” is just as outdated as the dichotomy between “real” and “digital” or thinking within national borders.

Today global problems are of more concern for young people than personal problems. Climate change and the destruction of nature, wars and conflicts, social inequality – these are the top issues and major challenges of our time that the world has to face, according to the generation. Individual challenges associated with education, financial situation or health are receding into the background. This is also because today we are confronted at the “micro level” with fewer existential fears than our grandparents.

„Today global problems are of more concern for young people than personal problems.“

The Generation Global is freeing itself from a materialistic way of thinking in which expensive things guarantee a certain social status. It is therefore all the more receptive to sharing offers. But apart from cars, clothing and food, worries are also shared. But social networks, new service platforms and innovative “app communities” make it possible for the Generation Global to let activities emerge independently of each other in various forms and in various parts of the world. The often hyperlocal projects and initiatives are thus the expression of a new class of world citizens with admirable altruistic values. The growing Generation Global takes the planet seriously as its home and sees global issues such as climate change and environmental pollution as its own.

Just one in five of the 18-35-year-olds worldwide has the feeling that their own concerns are being taken seriously by decision-makers in their home countries before major decisions are made. But in the future it will be indispensable for companies and politicians alike to listen to this Generation Global and its needs. Because of their sheer size, they are not only very influential today, but above all in the future, as they are going to represent an ever larger part of the workforce and voter base. And this is precisely why they should not be dismissed as a mere fad, since they are essentially an effort – a huge movement – to adapt to a world undergoing fundamental change.